I’m back from our trip to the antipodes, so indulge me a little with a trip down memory lane. I laughed loud and hard when they first brought out the camera on our mobile phones and said they’d never catch on! How wrong I was. I’d forgotten to pack my camera leads and therefore was unable to transfer any photos from camera to laptop as the memory card didn’t fit on my mac either. How thankful I was that the pics I took on the phone could easily be posted and shared on Facebook which helped chronical our time in Oz and which I can now look back on with ease. I took some with my pictbridge camera too, and have downloaded them at last. Here’s a taste of our time in Perth, where I went to boarding school.
This could be here in England couldn’t it – but in fact this is one of the shopping arcades in Perth, Australia.
This is how I remember Perth’s city centre….and as I am only too aware
time never stands still, and you can see the juxtoposition of the old and new in this pic here.
It was especially true of my old school, set in Bay View Terrace in Mosman Park. Even the original school building had been modernised. It had been extended on either side and all the windows had been replaced and it had a spanking new roof too. Had it not been for the ivy which covers the whole front lower facade, I would not have recognised it at all.
To the left of the original ivy covered main school building St Hilda’s now has its own chapel.
This used to be the sick bay with Dining Room attached. I think where the chapel now stands, it used to be the Headmistress’ house. You can see the end of the chapel on the left of the photo.
The sick bay which was annexed to the dining room seems to have been re-purposed as an enrolment office.
The building above is the June Jones Teaching and Learning Centre which must have been built since I left.
Several new buildings have been built, and in the above picture, this building houses the new dining room block.
Continuing the walk parallel to the building in the previous picture, you reach this building. In my time, this was one of the dormitories called St Margaret’s House. I don’t know if this has been extended or reconstructed, as it looks more like a sports hall – and it would make sense as beyond it in between the buildings is the swimming pool.
I walked to the other side of the building and you can see the pool from here.
Turning 90 degrees to the left you can see the playing fields…..
.
…… and if you turn to the left a bit more, you can see the pavilion.
The quadrangle where we used to have our orderlies (this was our morning break for tea and biscuits and you had to form an orderly queue to wait to be served) has been turfed, a monument has been built, all the buildings have had some updating – the boarding houses and music rooms just don’t seem to exist anymore, and the fruit lockers have disappeared too.
I’m glad they didn’t chop down the old gum tree – sadly that’s all that’s left of the landmarks as I remember it, and of course the old library block has been replaced with another new building which incorporates the Technology block too.
You can see how beautifully kept the grounds are – school had broken up and the place was absolutely deserted. I did ring and seek permission to walk through the grounds to take some photos on the Friday before they closed. The building Paul is looking at is the theatre and arts block. I shudder to think what the fees are these days to get an education here!
This is just the senior school. St Hilda’s have acquired another site where the prep school for day pupils and boarders is situated and which I imagine is equally well equipped.
I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to attend school here. They were great years, a terrific grounding to prepare one for the future.
It’s business as usual after this, so I’ll have something crafty for you next time! I hope you all had a wonderful christmas and I must thank you all for your wonderful cards and pressies.
Thanks for stopping by!
